notes: For xx_pinkstar at LJ, whose prompt is "I'll go with you". Set after the dancing scene in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. Enjoy!

in tattersand today something dies

.

The tea between his hands is lukewarm and bitter, sliding past his throat like an over-brewed liquid.

Harry does not usually take his tea with sugar, but the situation screams for it and he adds two whole spoonfuls, watching the tiny white particles dissolve in brown as he stirs. Hermione is stiff and silent beside him, their elbows a hair's breadth away from touching, a melancholic crease in the space between her eyebrows. Her gaze is fixed upon the frayed flaps of their makeshift tent, a ghost of a wish for them to wave open and reveal someone who is no longer there.

(This must be what loneliness looks like.)

"You know," he hesitates, the words a double-edged sword that threatens to spill out of his lips but eludes him just the same, "You know, it's not too late if you want to… catch him." Hermione doesn't say anything, doesn't even so much look at him, and he adds, "He hasn't been gone for long. Maybe he's still somewhere in the area. Maybe—"

"Harry." Her murmur is a whisper that caresses his cheek and raises tiny hairs at the nape of his neck. She rises to her feet and places her empty teacup on the small table, tense silence squaring her shoulders. Then she looks straight at him, brown eyes deep and dark with something like conviction, and Harry instantly forgets why he tried to make her leave just a few seconds ago. "I'll go with you," she says, the weight of decisions heavy in the cadences of her unwavering voice, "I'll go with you."

This time, it is Harry who doesn't say anything.

.

end.

notes: Thank you for reading, and Merry Christmas! :)

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